how to create a pine cone
You can model a pine cone-like shape using icospheres and vertex bevelling.


Add an icosphere (Add > Mesh > Icosphere). In Edit Mode, select the topmost vertex, turn on Proportional Editing (O), and translate up (G > Z). Use the Mouse wheel to increase the size of the proportional editing influence area as needed, until you get an egg-like shape.

Select all vertices (A), then bevel the vertices into hexagonal faces using the shortcut CtrlShiftB. Try to scale the faces until they are as large as possible without overlapping each other.

Select all faces except the few on the bottom, then extrude the faces individually (Tools Shelf > Mesh Tools > Add > Extrude Individual).

With the extruded faces still selected, change the pivot to Individual Origins (through the menu at the bottom of the 3D viewport screen).

Scale the selected faces down in the Z axis to flatten them a bit (S > Z).

Change the pivot point back to Median Point.

Turn off proportional editing (O) and move the selected faces up a bit (S > Z).

Add a Subsurf modifier with at least 2 subdivision levels (Properties Window > Modifiers > Add Modifier > Subdivision Surface), and change the shading to smooth (Tools Shelf > Edit > Shading > Smooth).



If you want a slightly more twisted version, experiment with adding a Simple Deform Modifier in one of the steps along the way: